The problem with standard “search and retrieve” techniques when applied to large image collections is the underlying assumption that users “know what they are looking for” and that all of the images have been tagged with meaningful key words. This may be the case in certain situations, but more likely, users browse image collections as a form of entertainment or to reminisce and seldom take the time an effort to provide key word information. Images are typically used as an adjunct to recalling past events, enhancing social connections, or establishing new relationships where the element of discovery is essential in making the experience enjoyable.
Designating “Favorites” was an early attempt to establish that certain images, in a multimedia collection, had special significance to the user. This feature could only be used to illustrate that an image or group of images are special but does not address why they are special or provide any indications about the relationships between images image in a collection other than they are the user's “favorites” or “not favorites”. Favorite status is manually assigned by a user at the time of image capture via suitably equipped cameras or while viewing images on a display device with software that provides this capability. In both cases, the user is required to make the designation manually and as multimedia content collections have grown in size, designating favorites have become increasingly less useful.
Another popular method of assigning special significance to multimedia content is to assign selected content to virtual “albums”. Albums have user designated or selected themes or names that attempt to reflect the type of content associated with the album. Some systems that employ albums store content files in a folder structure within a device or assessable by a device. Other content storage and presentation systems using albums only point to the content files so that the files do not need to be physically rearranged within a storage device and can be included in multiple albums without requiring redundant storage. Both types of album systems require the user to make decisions and manual designations that become increasingly burdensome for casual users as image collections have grown is size.
Another method of accessing multimedia content collections is by using searching algorithms. Text based searches require that keywords have already been assigned to images and tend to focus people down to specific images or categories of images, where the activity gets stuck, not necessarily at a point the user wanted to get to. It also reduces the possibility of serendipitous discovery and side tracking behavior. “Search and retrieve” techniques often makes interacting with images feel more like work and less like the enjoyable browsing type of behavior people typically undertook with a shoebox of images, where being sidetracked was part of the entertaining experience.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0094518 to Lawther et al., entitled “Method For Image Animation Using Image Value Rules,” teaches a method for image presentation, where the display is animated in a manner to attract attention to images determined to have a higher image value score. No provision is made for adjusting the images that are included in the image presentation according to a user-specified interest criterion in order to enable an active browsing experience.                European Patent Application 1089198 Wong entitled “Content-Based Image Searching” discloses a hierarchical method to derive a content-based image tree from an image database. The method partitions the set of multiple images into a first subset and a second subset by allocating images to each subset whose feature metrics are closer to a feature metric of a seed image in each respective subset. For each subset, a comparison image is determined whose feature metric is representative of feature metrics of images partitioned into the respective subsets. This process is recursively repeats for each subset, and for subsets of each subset, etc., to create a tree of partitioned subsets of images. The method then enables a search based on the comparison images.        International Patent Application WO 2008/073505 to Marques et al. entitled “System and Methods of Image Retrieval” discloses a visual image retrieval system. A preprocessor communicatively linked to an image database segments the images and determines a regions-of-interest. A perceptually-relevant image search machine interface is used to display query images and retrieve images in response to a user selecting at least one displayed query image.        International Patent Application WO 2005/008519 to Zheng et al. entitled “Combined Search Method for Content-Based Image Retrieval” discloses a method for performing combined image classification, storage and rapid visual content retrieval on a computer database. The method uses random combinatory information and involves sorting relevant information into categories and organizing it into data structures according to allocated indices.        International Patent Application WO 2004/061710 to Stauder et al. entitled “Process and Device for Access to Multimedia Elements by Means of Images Associated with These Elements” discloses a process for accessing multimedia elements. To access one of these elements, a first group of images associated with a first element is displayed, and means is provided for displaying a second group of images associated with at least one of these displayed images.        